re: 20 years ago today Dale Earnhardt was killed. NASCAR never recovered.

Someone needs to show OP that we have other boards. We have an entire NASCAR thread on the More Sports Board. I think there would be a better response to this thread if it were on the correct board (More Sports Board).

You are 100% correct. All these drivers are sterile robots.

They should make a rule if a driver does not cuss or at least 1 fist fight a year he is suspended the next year.

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The playoff system has not equaled better tv ratings. The playoffs system rewards being average. Most old school fans don't even understand how it works. Every time they make a change it does not help. At 1 time I used to people with nascar stuff all the time, tags on cars etc but never now.

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But the playoffs themselves aren't the reason for Nascar's demise. People often get that confused. It was just the implementation of the playoff system that corresponded with the same factors that were starting to drag down the sport. Most of those have been mentioned, but add to them stepping outside of the traditional NASCAR footprint (which was good in some ways, bad in others), the lack of any defined/strong personalities, lack of diver rivalries, the neutering of the manufactures rivalries and a myriad of other things. I'll also add Jimmy Johnson winning five in a row did not help the sport.

At the same time, track were raising ticket prices but more detrimentally, hotels were gouging race fans. Race weekends, they jacked their prices up to 200%-300%+ of normal AND required 3 night minimum stays. Thta simply made it WAY to expensive for the average, casual race fan.

The playoffs came in during these transitions and was a stop gap to try and add excitement to the sport. Which it has. People like to pin the decline of nascar on the playoffs, but for the first 2/3's of the year, it doesn't have any effect. Those races are still just as empty as the playoff races.

If you've not seen it, you should watch the special The Day It goes through the whole incident from start to finish. A lot of it is from Michael Waltrip's point of view. But they interview Scharader, Mikey, DW and RC. It's a really good watch and will bring a tear to your eye.

Another thing that has not been mentioned in this thread. The safety measures NASCAR implemented after Earnhardt's death have trickled down and outward to many other racing series. For example, head and neck restraints are required in every major racing series. Who knows how many lives these devices have saved? Also one that doesn't get a lot of recognition is the required standard replacement of driver restraints in the vehicle. Most folks don't remember the details, but one of Dale's lap belts failed in the crash causing him to hit the steering wheel. Nascar (and many other series) now requires these belts be replaced after so many races.

The Day Nascar died! And it's my birthday so I am always reminded.

I was watching, saw the wreck and immediately stated saying check on Dale...'cause it looked bad. He was already gone.

Sec needs to add nascar as a sport
No title ix issues both men and women could compete
Could use existing tracks around south with sec title race at Daytona

I have a cousin who used to race, Ernie Irvan.

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Then on a side note, the restraint system that was put in place after Earnhardt's death saved Gordon's life.

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Dale Earnhardt probably survives that crash if he wears a regular helmet. He still insisted on those chinless helmets and the story I read was that the impact of his chin on the wheel is what did him in.

I say all of that to say this...they had started using the harness already and had the better helmets but Dale wasn't having any of it. He was old school and stubborn about it, so I'm not sure he would've ever agreed to wear that harness.